FortSask

If you were planning on starting up a wild boar farm in Strathcona County, you won't be able to anytime soon.

A new Responsible Livestock Ownership Bylaw has replaced the Animal Control and Apiculture Bylaw. The change was approved by council on Tuesday (Oct. 4) and went into effect immediately. 

Wild boars are considered a provincial pest in Alberta.

Council's reason to ban these farms is to protect wildlife, the environment, and agriculture.

Some of the other changes to the bylaw include:

An Ardrossan Junior High teacher has been awarded a prestigious scholarship. 

Rita Purdy, who teaches social studies at the school, was one of 24 Canadian teachers to take part in a two-week trip to Jerusalem. The trip was sponsored by the Canadian Society of Yad Vashem (CSYV) and included multiple seminars and workshops to improve strategies for teaching about the Holocaust.  

Purdy is grateful to have been able to spend the summer in Israel. 

Canada needs a new civilian force to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies as such events become more common and severe, the head of the Canadian Red Cross said Tuesday.

In an interview CEO Conrad Sauvé compared Canada’s current approach to responding to emergencies to fighting a fire without any previous planning or preparation.

“We're trying to sort out who does what after the fire started,” he said.

Right now, Sauvé said, "we're not paying for the firehouse."

Ontario Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis said Tuesday she is confident Pierre Poilievre will ensure all of the party's caucus voices are heard, amid calls for him to name her to a critic role.

Lewis ran against Poilievre in the Tories' recent leadership contest and placed a distant third behind his resounding first-ballot victory. 

She hails from the party's social conservative wing and during the race repeatedly attacked Poilievre for not talking about issues like abortion, which she and some others in caucus oppose. 

Police and emergency services were on the scene of a serious crash just outside of Edmonton.

Multiple eyewitnesses on Tuesday afternoon (Oct. 4) reported an overturned vehicle on Highway 28 southbound near Highway 216.

Those who saw the incident say there were serious injuries. 

The area was closed off to traffic but has since reopened. 

More to come...

Repairs on the Highway 15 pedestrian bridge are completed. 

After several weeks of being closed, one of the two bridges across Highway 15 reopened for public use on Tuesday (Oct. 4).

Access to the bridge was restricted after a vehicle carrying an oversized load struck the bridge in mid-July. 

Although work on the overhead portion of the bridge is complete, there is still construction happening underneath.

Traffic will still be restricted to a single lane until further notice. 

Travellers on Highway 2 can expect delays at the CN overpass near Morinville.

The northbound bridge on the CN overpass will be closed to all traffic for a bridge replacement project. The southbound bridge will remain open for traffic with reduced speed limits.

Drivers should expect delays and adjust their commute and travel times accordingly.

According to the provincial government, the project is expected to be completed in the fall of 2023.

The Alberta Society for Injured Birds of Prey hosted their second Fall Release Day on Sunday (Oct. 2) where they launched two raptors, a Broad-winged Hawk and a Swainson's Hawks.

The society gets calls about injured or starving birds in the area -- they'll arrive to take them in and nurse them back to health before releasing them into the wild.

This Broad-winged Hawk was found starving not far from the area about a month ago. The society arranged for the hawk to be sent to their shelter.

If you hear sirens in Fort Saskatchewan this week there will be no need to worry. 

The city will be testing its emergency siren system this Thursday (Oct. 6) between the hours of 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of Fire Prevention Week. 

The sirens will not be alerting to any threat to public safety. 

These sirens are in place to warn residents of emergencies in the community such as: 

Changes are coming to labs at the Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital and the Strathcona County Health Centre. 

Effective December 5, urgent-care labs in both places will shift their focus to emergency, inpatient, and ambulatory patients. Community patients will be directed to independent labs in the community. 

The change will affect several other hospitals across the Edmonton area, and will only be implemented in areas where community labs are already in operation.